Improvement in clasps for supporting garments



S; M. ALLEN.

CLASPS FOB. surromme GARMENTS. N .;1*7.7,981. Patented May 30,1876.

1761162021": c/Ji *FZMJMW N-PETBKS PHOTOUTHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON, D. G.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

STEPHEN M. ALLEN, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS."

IMPROVEMENT IN CLASPS FOR SUPPORTING cARMEnTs.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 177,998 I, dated May 30,1876; application filed May 11, 1876.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, STEPHEN M. ALLEN, of Boston, county of Suffolk, and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Garment-Supporters; and I do hereby declare that. the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being bad to the accompanying drawing, making part of this specification. V

' My invention relates to garment-supporters,

so called, designed and used principally to support stockings.

Figure 1 is a perspective View, Fig. 2 a plan, and Fig. 3 an edge view, of my improved form of garment-supporter.

The characteristic feature of the improvement is, that the spring-holding jaws overlap one another like the jaws of scissors or shears.

To enable others to make my shear-spring stocking-clasp, I proceed to describe the same as follows:

I form from flattened wire or a flexible metallic sheet theskeleton of my shear-spring clasp substantially in the form shown in the drawing, so that when compressed and sprung together and riveted at the end d, the faces or jaws b of the clasp shall be brought past each other, like the jaws ofa pair of shears, though kept apart at their lower ends, about their own thickness, by a washer, c, riveted between the two parts. The upper part of the frame forms a bow or loop, a, of suflicient size to admit the edge of the stocking, which is pressed down into the jaws b, and is then held bycompresslon. r

I find that the shear-jaws of the clasps, by

the jaws, at the point where the garment en-- ters between them, set closelytogether, but that they separate as they extend toward the riveted end. This is the preferred form of.

the supporter, but is not indispensable.

Having described my invention, I state,in conclusion, that I do not claim, broadly, a garmen t-supporter in which the loop is prolonged into jaws brought together so as to form between them a narrow slot in which the garment can be drawn and held; but

What I do claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. A garmentsupporter in which the loop is combined with overlapping shear-spring jaws, substantially as shown and described.

2. The combination of the overlapping or shear-spring jaws and interposed washer, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name.

STEPHEN M. ALLEN. Witnesses: h

WILLIAM J. CLARK, FRANK G. WHITE. 

